TheBanyanTree: I'm not cut out to be a boss

[Monique Young]

	So I have an employee. Her name is Sharon. She works for me
part-time, and she works for another client of mine part-time. She used to
work for me full time at the company I used to work at, until I got fed up
and quit, and then they laid her off because they're having a serious cash
flow problem. But we won't go into that. 
	Some days, like today, I have Sharon go to a client's office, and I
stay home. I like staying home. I find it a very conducive way to pass the
time. Sometimes I have to go in to the office, but since I can dial in
remotely and I only work for them 15 hours a week, this works even better.
Anyway, so Sharon goes in to the office and sees what's going on, and what
needs to be done, and as she comes across issues and things that need doing
she'll IM me to ask me what to do, or if I want something. I've already been
in remotely and reconciled the accounts and I see it's not looking pretty,
but that's neither here nor there. Sharon works without supervision, which
is how I like it.
	We IM back and forth, get a few problems solved, a few invoices
done, and then Sharon says, "I've decided to sit on the beach today, would
you like to join me in sipping a fruity drink and getting some sun?"
	Of course this sounds fabulous to me. I am certainly not opposed to
such an activity, especially after the day I've had. So I say that would be
lovely.
	Then a thought occurs to me, and I must ask: "By the way, are you
billing me for the time you're sitting on the beach enjoying yourself?"
	I do have to admit, my ability to pick employees is excellent, and I
always pick honest ones. Her reply: "Uhm, yes."
	My reply? "Employees. Can't shoot them . . . "
	I'd like a cadre of employees to just boss around, and have them do
this or that or the other thing, preferably in that order, but in any order
they'd like, if that's what it takes, but when it comes right down to it,
I'd rather send them home to sit on the beach and enjoy the sun while they
can. There certainly isn't that much of it that we can afford to squander
it, and certainly not today, when the sky has been pulsing intermittently
with wet stuff, an ongoing leaky faucet, and since I'm of the opinion that
many of us (not me, but many of us) spend far too much time working as it
is, it seems to me that work is not all it's cracked up to be. It pays for
things, and sometimes, for those who have either chosen wisely or gotten
lucky, it can even be, well, a good way to pass the time, but let's face it
-- many of us work to live, not live to work. And so it'd be with my
employees. "Go ahead. Take some time. Take all you need. The work, if that's
what it is, will still be there when we get to it." 
	It's been my experience, after more than a few years of working,
that the work is always there the next day, and there won't be the problem
of running out of it. "Get to it while you can! For tomorrow that in basket
may be empty!" is not a cry that I've ever heard. So I say, to all
employees, just take some time. Sit on the beach, have something cool and
refreshing to drink, alcoholic or not, it doesn't matter, and when we feel
more up to it, let's do some more work. 
	Just don't put it on your time card.